Analysis of Land Use Management Activities in Gwagwalada
Chapter One
AIM AND OBJECTIVES
AIM
The aim of the study, is to appraise the activities of the planning Authority with regards to landuse management in Gwagwalada, identify the problems and make recommendations for improvement.
OBJECTIVE
The objectives are as follows:
- To review the concept of land use management and its requirements for adequate management of land use activities.
- To describe the land use activities that relate to landuse management in Gwagwalada .
- To assess the effectiveness of land use management in
- To make recommendations for improving land use management in Gwagwalada
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
CONCEPT OF LAND USE MANAGEMENT
Land use refers to mans activities in relation to land (Olomo 1997) , cited in Willians .(2005) The common land use types, in rural areas are Agricultural, Forestry, waste lands, Residential and public uses . In the urban area, the common land uses are industrial, commercial, administrative, Educational, Social Amenities and Waste lands. Conversely, The term land use management – means: establishing or implementing any measure to regulate the use or change in the form and function of activities that takes place on land . Landuse is the activity on or in relation to land, while the urban land use management is the coordination of those activities to achieve efficiency in urban development. That is Landuse management involves planning, development Control, land administration, and landuse change management.
SCOPE OF LANDUSE MANAGEMENT.
Land use management covers, planning control, land allocation , development control and land use change management. Effective land use management enhances efficiency of urban development
. The scope of Land use management covers following :
- The regulation of land-use changes such as, for example, the rezoning of a property from residential to commercial use;
- The regulation of `green fields’ land development, e. the development of previously undeveloped land;
- The regulation of the subdivision and consolidation of land parcels;
- The regulation of the regularization and upgrading process of informal settlements, neglected city centres and other areas requiring such processes; and
- The facilitation of land development through the more active participation of the municipality in the land development process, especially through public-private
The fifty item of activities is different from the rest in that it requires of local government a more proactive approach to land development. The first four however correspond more closely with the traditional land development regulation role. Land-use management has two main underlying rationales. The first is the widely felt resistance to the idea of uncontrolled land development and the second is the commonly expressed wish by particular sectors in society to promote various types of desirable land development. The resistance to uncontrolled development is motivated by a number of concerns, the precise mix of which is determined by the particular social, economic and political contexts of different times and places. Essentially however these concerns include the following:
- Environmental concerns: uncontrolled development of land can have adverse effects onnatural habitats, cultural landscapes and air and water
- Health and safety concerns: uncontrolled development can lead to overcrowding andunsafe building construction. Certain land uses can also be detrimental to the health and safety of neighbor
- Socialcontrol: the control of land uses and building types has long been a means of exerting social control, particularly through the exclusion of certain types of person, household or economic activity from certain areas through the application of particular development controls limiting, for instance, plot sizes, plot coverage and home industries.
CHAPTER THREE
THE STUDY METHODOLOGY.
The research methodology cover the source of data required, the method of data collection, oral interview, description, method of data analysis and presentation. The method of data collection in this research is mainly oral interviews and reconnaissance surveys. The result obtain from interview will be use to analise the data to get the result.
CHAPTER FOUR
ASSESSMENT OF LANDUSE MANAGEMENT IN GWAGWALADA
Assessment of land Administration.
The formal land allocation made in Gwagwalada from 1980-2003. This covered total of seventy-four thousand seven hundred and twenty –four plots(74724). As required by law, all Land allocations are to be carried out through the land use and allocation committee. In practice, however, the committee was never constituted, and without it, the Chairman of the local council and the Zonal manager have been responsible for land allocation , implying the lack of transparency in the allocation process .In addition to the requirement for land use and allocation because committee, Land administration unit is o be anchor all the process of land administration. The unit specifically is to have responsibility for managing land allocation with unit head reports to Zonal manager. The other functions of the unit are to be::
CHAPTER FIVE
RECOMMENDATIONS
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The study has established indicators of poor land use management in seven areas. First, it was identified that about seventy – four thousand seven hundred and twenty four plots have been allocated from 1980 to the year 2003, most of which are not done in line without transparency in the allocation process. The layouts which formed the basis by which plots were allocated were also established to be unrelated to the master plan proposal. The second findings relates to poor development control enforcement which led to inappropriate developments of the nine hundred and seventeen applications submitted for processing, between 1992 to 2003, only one hundred and thirty three (133) approvals have been granted suggesting how inefficient the process has been. The situation was shown to have worsened when development control was shifted from the planning office at Gwagwalada to the department of development control at Wuse zone 6, (2003 to 2009) during which only fifty applications were approved. The third failure to the control developments has led to massive distortions. This has happened partly because capacity was lacking to monitor violations, but also because no committee existed to process change of use where such request are formally made to developers.
The fourth is that land administration was arbitrary carried out. While some people got their allocation for the Federal Capital Development Authority the majority were acquired through the local council or the Agrima directly. This has occurred because the nee land use and allocation committee never existed.
The fifth finding is that adequate staffing did not exist for effective land use management. This extends to the equipment to carryout land use activities.
The sixth relates to overlapping functions of land use management units.
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
Recommendations on planning practices
The Federal capital development authority needs to review Gwagwalada master plan to ensure effective land use management. For thirty years,. the master plan has not been reviewed,. The planning unit in Gwagwalada needs to increase the number of staff to be able to carry out planning activities effectively The framework for landuse management should be reorganize to ensure better coordination of the activities of the entire landuse management. The monitoring unit of development control should always liaise with development control for planning activities. The planning should always give detailed land use from urban and regional planning and the department of development control should always confirmed the status of landuse from Urban and regional planning before an approval is issued.
Recommendation on Land administration practices
The district centers and neighborhoods centers converted should be revoked and demolished with due consultation with developers and be given an alternative location.
The landuse and allocation committee should be constituted in Gwagwalanda, so that allocation can be done in line with landuse proposal in Gwagwalada to avoid land use distortion .The planning office in Gwagwalada and and the land office should be separated to avoid the overlapping functions. T his will ensure check and balance if the three departments are separated, to ensure effective landuse managements.
Recommendation on development control.
The Department of Development Control needs to create a method of awareness to enlighten the public on the need to have development permit before any building can take place.
The department of Development Control is recommended to introduce a system where a building approval is done based on existing land use proposals. There is need to introduce landuse change committee in collaboration with department of urban and regional planning and the department of development control to avoid improper land use change management. The Development Control Department should recruit more staff at the Development Control unit so that development Control can be more effective. The department of Development Control should purchase more equipment to carry out development control effectively in Gwagwalada. The Department of Development Control needs to be more functional for day to day monitoring of landuses in Gwagawalada. There is need for public involvement in the area of creating awareness, this is because most of the developers did not know much about building permit. There should be distribution of hand bill informing the public of what development control is all about. The public should also be informed about the penalty of starting a building without the development permit.
There is need also to create awareness through radio and television highlighting the importance of development control permit and the implications of landuse violation to urban development. In the areas where most of the neighborhood and the district centers which have been converted to another land use, it is importance to organize due consultation with the stakeholders of the areas with a view to have alternative solution.
However, after consultation with stake holders, the other places be acquire and use for the districts centre and neighborhood to replaced the activities that has been lost in those areas of proposal. The development of those centre be investigated and those who did not have development control approval should be tax to pay for the contravention, and all these money be use for provision of urban infrastructure
The Development Control Department should monitor or control at the beginning of the commencement of the development and not when the structures are developed and then subject to demolition without consultation, this is against the managerial principles in urban management.
Recommendation on the framework for landuse management.
The framework for landuse management in Gwagwalada need to be separated. This will enable each unit to check one one another. This will ensure effective landuse management in Gwagwalada .Furthermore, all the agencies that are involved in landuse management should liaise with one another for effective landuse management. The landuse committee members should cover all the agencies concern on land management such as the Department of Urban and regional planning, Development control, and Abuja geographic information system. They should be terms of reference for the committee and also the policy guidelines for the effective management . The money realized from landuse change should be channel toward the provision of urban infrastructures.
Above all, all the charges that will be realized through contravention, landuse change, development control approval bill should be properly managed for good urban governance in the area of transparent, trust and accountability.
CONCLUSION
The investigation has shown that Land use management represented by the development control, Planning and land administration activities in Gwagwalda has performed poor For almost ten years there was no development control activities and even when the development control activities was in place in 1992 it was still poor. This is because enough monitoring was lacking the allocation are not checked by the development control, the outcome of the ineffectiveness of the development control is a threat to urban management, the researcher also concluded that poor land use management is as a result of lack of equipment, inadequate staff and poor logistic . Finally the recommendations are made to avoid further occurrence.
REFERENCES
- Abuja (2009) , Development Control Regulation Manual of F.CT
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- Doxiadis (1979) Regional Development Plan for Dox-Nigeria Lagos.
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- F.C.D.A (1980), Gwagwalada Master Plan.
- F.C.D.A(2003), Development Control Register for Building approval in Gwagwalada
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- Homer Hoyt (1939).The Structure and Growth of Urban Area. Federal Housing Authority Washington, D.C.
- I.P.A. (1976),Abuja Master Plan. Foundation publication, Ibadan Nigeria Journnesboung: (2009), Land use Management Frame Work.
- Land decree(1978,The Nigerian land use decree act,